My First APS Stampshow

Have seen the chairs for A& D consistently full at the shows I've attended and have been interested in why they are so popular. Haven't had much luck getting near their booth, sometimes even a waiting line. Would appreciate any insight on what they do that attracts so many buyers. They seem to carry everything - is that the reason or is there any area that they are particularly good in? I hope to be able to go to Columbus next month.

Thank you.

A&D has a big, broad stock and the prices are reasonable for being a retail dealer. If you're a worldwide country, or topical collector and you have holes to fill, they're a great place to shop. They had plenty of space at their table on the Sunday of the APS show in Richmond last year,enough that my kids could spend some time shopping with them for rocks and minerals on stamps. I find them particularly useful for filling in low-cost spots in some of my "fun" country collections after I buy a starter collection and some small lots.

This said, they are not specialists in everything (Steve, I think you will find their Portuguese Colonies materials is done by Scott number, which may provide you some opportunities to spot some things).

"If you're a worldwide country, or topical collector and you have holes to fill, they're a great place to shop"

To the topical people, please understand their stock is strictly sorted by country, not topic, but they have stuff that is very recent )but not from junk countries like Grenada or Tuvalu) that most others don't carry.

I agree with the two posters above ,A&D Stamps fills the needs for collectors in that important price range between 20 cents and the $5.00 area. If your looking to fill those spaces in any country collection or worldwide collection the place to find those "cheap" stamps ,many being so low in price most ebay sellers find it unprofitable to handle them especially if you add postage to the transaction .They have a neat and very profitable part of the market but the work is a killer to keep it all going .

A&D also carries a whole lot of more expensive material. Especially for popular countries (say, Liechtenstein), if I wanted to fill in a key early set, chances are they have it.

Agree that they are organized by country (they MAY have a little bit of topical but I'm not sure) so you'll want to have a checklist. Of course, with Columbus being a joint show with ATA there should be a number of topically oriented dealers as well.

After going on their website, I recognized the owner's picture, an older gentleman, and suddenly remembered that I had interacted with him very briefly once. I was looking for some topical stamps trying to get my wife interested in collecting and I happened to catch his eye walking past. Even though his chairs were full, he asked what I collected, and when I mentioned some topical areas, he noted that he's not organized like that, but by mainly by country as the folks above have mentioned. He didn't encourage me further to wait around for a chair, given how busy he was. so I moved on. As I mentioned above, never did get near the booth again but I wasn't at the shows for very long. I'm hoping to be at Columbus for the whole weekend, so I'll make a point of being patient for a chair since I'm intrigued by what folks are saying. But presumably I need to prepare a specific want list to make it productive. Thanks for the info.

A few years ago I purchased a bulk lot at auction ,not sure which firm since I deal with 4 or 5 firms . Part of the lot had a few red boxes full of dealer cards . Here is a sample of the cards from A & D .

You will notice they price the cards in pencil so they can make changes . You will also notice they used 4 or 5 different people{red hand writing } to fill and I.D. the cards. I believe the boxes about 4 of them were duplicates and not entered into their main traveling stock . A firm like that and this is a guess only, wants 1 or 2 of each card in their vast inventory and the extras k sold off in boxes thru a auction house .

How is A&D's pricing?

Pricing is reasonable as paperhistory notes; not the lowest you could find, but that's completely offset by the fact that they have nearly everything. People fill those chairs because no matter what they want, A&D seems to have it. I would disagree with "floortrader" and suggest that they often have 4 or 5 copies of even less common issues and sometimes 10 or 12. For my collecting areas of US, Ireland, Italy and GB classics, I've never failed to find what I need, including $500 stamps. There's also the benefit of not having to go to Table 1 with the GB specialist, then Table 2 with the US specialist, you stay in the same place for everything. They accept credit cards without any problem and complete the sale with a proper receipt, paper bag and a smile. Sit down, find what you need, smooth payment, farewell with a smile; what more could you want?

I concur with everything in Paperhistory's (Matt) and CJPalermo1964's (Chris) posts above.

Fortunately, A&D come down to at least 2 major shows here in Southern California every year, and I've had the pleasure of "shopping" with them for a long time. (At least 20 years, and very likely more than that.) Jim and Sue are lovely people and a pleasure to work with. And the scope of what they bring to shows all around the country is amazing!

I managed to grab an empty seat at their booth at the last WESTPEX without having to wait off to the side, but that was later in the day, after I had passed by the filled seats several times. I didn't buy very much from them this year, but that only reflects on my finances, not their stock. They had everything that was still on my "Buy It Today" list.

They try to stock 3 of each mint (and if they are older it can be 3 hinged and 3 NH) and 3 used (I am talking about everything except US, Canada, and UN - for those they can have more), and they definitely have stuff above $5 - in fact they have dozens of binders (red if retain.

I will be attending the stamp show in Columbus, and it will be my first time attending. My daughter found out and was very excited, so now she is going too.

At almost every major show I have been to, at the opening moments there is a race among a large group of collectors to get a chair at A&D. It's fun to watch.

REVCOLLECTOR ----I think the firm A&D services a part of the market few other dealers want to venture into and that is handling a worldwide stock . As I mention earlier in a posting above the ability to build and then a never ending consistent restocking of that inventory has to be a four or five person operation .

The closes thing to that size operation was the recent sale of the DR. OTT inventory by Kelleher Auctions this past year . Massive stamp inventories is something that gets noticed in the hobby and A&D is at or near the top. At a show like the one in Ohio next month ,they have to be coming with a whole bunch of newly made up red boxes .